Russian in Germany across Generations

该项目调查了德国三代不同讲俄语的人之间的语言传播和变化。该项目的预期结果将有助于我们从理论上理解移民环境中的第一语言磨耗和输入质量对遗产语言习得的作用。该项目采用比较的方法，涉及两个维度：首先，我们将比较在德国的三代讲俄语的人的代表的俄语水平：我们将收集以下数据：(I)作为年长移民到德国的祖父母(=潜在的L1磨损者)；(Ii)在青少年时期移民到德国并在早期经历语言环境快速变化的父母(第1.5代移民)；(3)已在德国出生的儿童(=典型的遗产演讲者)。这三个群体在双语习得方面都代表了不同的概况。前两组研究母语磨损的相关性很明显，但他们的年龄不同，因为他们的语言环境因移民而发生了戏剧性的变化。此外，它们都为第三组习得俄语提供了输入，这为研究输入质量对遗产语言习得的作用打开了可能性。其次，我们的研究不会局限于母语磨损和输入质量对孤立的语言属性的影响，而是采取整体的方法，包括几个语言层面的属性(语音和音系学、韵律、屈折词法、形态句法、句法和词汇)。这一设计将使我们能够检查(A)考虑磨耗过程和语言变化的被调查属性的(不同)脆弱程度，以及(B)父母输入的质量对说俄语的下一代人作为少数族裔语言习得的重要性，取决于被调查的语言属性。该项目将为以下研究问题提供答案：(I)哪些非规范特征是通过前几代人的异常输入获得的，哪些是在一代人内出现的？(Ii)在三代人中是否都存在相同的机制(磨损或对上一代人仍然存在的特征的不完全习得、接触诱导的变化、语言内部变化)？(Iii)这些机制是否影响相同的语言水平？如果是，它们在三代人中是否受到相同程度的影响(关于由此产生的非规范特征对下一代的“可迁移性”)？该项目的另一个预期结果是在德国建立了一个带注释的俄语语料库，作为研究三代人在接触条件下俄语发展的独特来源。

The project investigates language transmission and change among three different generations of speakers of Russian in Germany. The expected results of the project will contribute to our theoretical understanding about first language attrition in immigration settings and the role of quality of input for heritage language acquisition.The project pursues a comparative approach which involves two dimensions of comparison: First, we are going to compare the proficiency in Russian of representatives of three different generations of speakers of Russian in Germany: We will collect data from (i) the grandparents who immigrated as elder adults to Germany (= potential L1 attriters); (ii) parents who immigrated as adolescents to Germany and experienced a rapid change in their linguistic environment at an early point (generation 1.5 of immigrants); (iii) children who were already born in Germany (= typical heritage speakers). All three groups represent different profiles with regard to their bilingual language acquisition. The relevance of the first two groups for research on L1 attrition is obvious, but they differ with regard to their age when their linguistic environment changed dramatically due to immigration. Moreover, they both supply the input for the acquisition of Russian by the third group which opens possibilities for investigating the role of quality of input for heritage language acquisition. Second, our research will not be confined to effects of L1 attrition and quality of input with regard to isolated linguistic properties, but we will adopt a holistic approach by including properties from several linguistic levels (phonetics and phonology, prosody, inflectional morphology, morphosyntax, syntax and lexicon). This design will allow us to check (a) for the (differing) degree of vulnerability of the investigated properties considering attrition processes and language change and (b) the importance of quality of parental input on language acquisition by the subsequent generation of speakers of Russian as a minority language depending on the investigated linguistic property.The project will provide answers to the following research questions: (i) Which non-canonical features are acquired through deviant input of preceding generations and which emerge within one generation?; (ii) Are the same mechanisms (attrition or incomplete acquisition of features which are still present in preceding generations, contact-induced change, language-internal changes) at play in all three generations?; (iii) Do these mechanisms affect the same linguistic levels and, if yes, are they affected to the same degree in the three generations (also regarding the "transferability" of the resulting noncanonical features to the following generation)? Another anticipated result of the project consists in building an annotated corpus of Russian in Germany as a unique source for studying the development of Russian under contact conditions over a time span of three generations.